Pages

Search Try It And You May

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Are people just dumb?

Just for the fun of it.

My husband is not actually a computer but he does work with them all day. He relies heavily on logic when tackling decisions.

He considers not only the possible outcomes of a decision, but the most likely. He’s ok with taking a risk on a less than likely outcome, but he expects you to be honest about why you chose the risk and have a well-thought-out reason for taking that risk.

His first reaction to the bombings in Boston Marathon were “why are terrorists so dumb? What do they think they will gain from these actions? Do they actually think they will achieve their desired goals of advancing their cause with these kinds of actions?”

He said this because he thinks their goals are logical, concrete goals.

But I think this is where I offer him something that isn’t always obvious to him (love you, honey). People ain’t logical. People are emotional, irrational and impulsive. And not everyone does things for a good reason. Including our kids.

One of his favorite questions to ask me, when he comes home and the kids are whining/crying/arguing/shouting/being disobedient/being jerks is “Why are they doing this? What happened?”

I know why he’s asking this. If we can reproduce the bug, we can fix things and prevent future system crashes.

I used to try and provide an answer. They’re hungry. They’re tired. Mars is in ascendence heightening their aggression. Lately I’ve just started shrugging my shoulders. Who knows why they are acting like jerks? Not me.